Sultanate of Golconda

The Sultanate of Golconda (Persian: سلطنت گلکنده; Urdu: سلطنت گولکنڈه) was an early modern kingdom in southern India, ruled by the Persianate, Shia Islamic Qutb Shahi dynasty of Turkoman origin. After the decline of the Bahmani Sultanate, the Sultanate of Golconda was established in 1518 by Quli Qutb Shah, as one of the five Deccan sultanates.

The kingdom extended from parts of the modern-day Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Telangana. The Golconda sultanate was constantly in conflict with the Adil Shahis and Nizam Shahis, which it shared borders with in the seventeenth century to the west and northwest. In 1636, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan forced the Qutb Shahis to recognize Mughal suzerainty and pay periodic tributes. The dynasty came to an end in 1687 during the reign of its seventh sultan Abul Hasan Qutb Shah, when the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb arrested and jailed Abul Hasan for the rest of his life in Daulatabad, incorporating Golconda into the Mughal empire.

The Qutb Shahis were patrons of Persianate Shia culture. The official and court language of the Golconda sultanate during the first 90 years of its existence (c. 1518 – 1600) was also Persian. In the early 17th century, however, the Telugu language was elevated to the status of the Persian language, while towards the end of the Qut Shahis' rule, it was the primary court language with Persian used occasionally in official documents. According to Indologist Richard Eaton, as Qutb Shahis adopted Telugu, they started seeing their polity as the Telugu-speaking state, with the elites of the sultanate viewing their rulers as "Telugu Sultans".